Watch Documentaries
Goldie Ringgold
Watchdocumentaries.com is a leading online collection of free documentaries. Our mission is to curate informative and educational documentary films and to organise them in an accessible manner. The library is regularly updated with new titles for you to watch and enjoy.
I'm really into history so I've enjoyed the Die Deutschen series about German history. I've also watched tonnes of documentaries about the Nazi era and at the moment I'm really interested in German resistance groups such as the Edelweisspiraten. I also got really obsessed with the Thirty Years War for a while and watched all the German documentaries on YouTube about it.
I also had the opportunity to watch the Bill Oliver-directed Our Son, a Kramer vs. Kramer-type drama starring Billy Porter and Luke Evans as a couple going through a divorce, proving that messy divorces see no sexually identity or gender. The film was satisfyingly sad.
Tribeca Film Festival was a wonderful journey and the documentaries were the winners for me. Yes, I am in a documentary era, but they are blatantly speaking more to the social and cultural landscape that surrounds. I appreciate a metaphorical, artsy fartsy take on the myriad of issues facing the world, but sometimes I just want to know facts without having to deal with a complex narrative that requires too much character development. So yes, it was the documentaries for me.
A fascinating documentary, Pamela, A Love Story is a reevaluation of Pamela Anderson, one of the most compelling celebrities of the '90s. Directed by Ryan White, it combines diary readings and interviews with Anderson herself alongside time spent with her sons to create an incredible portrait of a misunderstood human being. Must watch stuff.
As good as Netflix documentaries are, there's been a tendency to drag out true crime into these bloated multi-episode series. Thankfully, Our Father is the opposite of that. It's a lean, perfectly executed documentary focused on Donald Cline, an Indiana fertility doctor who used his own sperm to inseminate a ridiculous number of women against their will.
This is an incredible piece, one of those stories that just escalates and escalates to the point where your jaw drops in disbelief.
Break Point is the latest in what feels like a zillion documentaries exploring the everyday drama of sports. You know the ones I mean -- All or Nothing, Drive to Survive. Cricket has one, AFL has one -- there's even a golf one coming on Netflix later this year.
Break Point focuses on tennis and -- thankfully -- picks the best athletes to focus on. Watch this for the legendary Nick Kyrgios at the very least.
Untold is the latest from the folks behind Wild Wild Country.
It's a sports documentary series, with each episode going in-depth on controversial sports topics. The first episode focuses on Malice at the Palace, the notorious basketball match where Ron Artest waded into the crowd and wailed on fans back in 2004.
Untold is now in its second season, and it is absolute must-watch stuff. The new episodes are arguably better than the stellar first season. Maybe the best sports documentary series on Netflix
There are a lot of Netflix documentaries about cults gone mad, but Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey might be the most disturbing of the lot. Unlike Murder Among the Mormons, which almost treated its topic like a screwball comedy, Keep Sweet is a very grim story about a grim human being in Warren Jeffs. It's a fantastic documentary, and among the best Netflix has produced, but it comes with a very hefty content warning.
It's almost impossible to overstate how famous Jimmy Savile was in the UK -- particularly in the 1980s. He was beyond a household name, in many ways he felt like an eccentric uncle to the nation.
Which made revelations that he had sexually assaulted hundreds of underage girls and boys all the more horrific. This was a person the whole of Britain had invited into their homes.
Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story does a great job of going through the archives, combining footage that is utterly bizarre in hindsight, and adding fantastic interviews with some of the major players in British TV during Savile's heyday. A fascinating, albeit disturbing documentary. Be warned: This is a difficult watch.
Netflix has been on fire with its documentaries lately, and The Most Hated Man on the Internet is the latest. From the producers of Tinder Swindler and Dont F**k with Cats, it's a three-part documentary that tells the story of Hunter Moore, one of the most notorious purveyors of "revenge porn." Definitely worth watching this one.
The Girl in the Picture is the latest true crime documentary from Netflix. It's up there with the service's absolute best work.
It feels like, after a period of needlessly bloated multi-episode documentaries, Netflix has started trimming the fat, releasing lean, incredibly compelling documentaries again. First Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey and Our Father, now this.
I've watched plenty of true crime documentaries on Netflix, but nothing has come close to The Keepers. A staggering story, told across generations, that's respectful of the victims, yet compelling throughout.
Focusing on Michael Peterson and the death of his wife Kathleen, The Staircase is more than just a murder mystery. It's a drawn-out epic that takes place over literal decades, a documentary that follows Peterson and examines his every move, but somehow still remains objective.
It's a good time to watch or revisit this one, since HBO Max launched a drama miniseries based on it.
One of the more recent true crime documentaries from Netflix, this is a good one.
Focusing on the bizarre deaths of 11 family members in one house in Burari, Delhi, India in 2018, House of Secrets delves into the theories behind of the strangest suicide/murder cases in recent memory. Unmissable stuff.
With the swath of true crime documentaries and podcasts that came in its wake, it's easy to forget that the world once lost its collective mind over Making a Murderer. In a lot of ways it created the template that many Netflix documentaries now follow. A real original.
The absolute gold standard for long-running sports documentaries. Drive to Survive is so good, and so popular, that it's inspired a whole new level of interest in Formula 1, especially in the US. This show is great at elevating the characters that occupy the sport. More shows like this, please.
14 Peaks tells the story of the Nepalese mountaineer Nimsdai Purja and his goal of climbing all 14 mountains above the height of 8,000 meters (26,000 feet) in one year. It's incredible. Must-watch stuff.
Focusing on Scott Lindgren, a kayaking legend who was a pioneer of the sport, this is a traditional story of an extreme sports star overcoming odds, but it runs a little deeper than that. Fighting against a brain tumor and his own personal demons, Lindgren is a compelling case study. Must watch stuff.
Naomi Osaka has become one of the most famous and talked-about athletes on the planet. This fascinating documentary explores different phases of her career and offers incredible access into the life of a young woman struggling with the pressures of sport and fame. A must-watch.
Seaspiracy follows in the footsteps of multiple documentaries focused on the impact of meat eating on the environment. This time the global fishing industry is in the crosshairs. As expected this one has stirred up a bit of controversy from all stakeholders -- PETA, Greenpeace and conservation groups can't seem to agree if Seaspiracy is accurate or fair. Watch it and make up your own mind.
David Attenborough nature documentaries are so pervasive, they're vulnerable to self parody, but Our Planet is -- I believe -- the high watermark. Only Planet Earth, another Attenborough doc, comes close. But I prefer this one.
In the wake of the Capitol siege, the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica controversy almost feels like ancient history, but that doesn't make this documentary any less important. If you haven't seen it, then watch it.
Recently released, Operations Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal has a name as long as some of Netflix's recent documentaries. Thankfully, this isn't as bloated as, say, the recent Cecil Hotel doc, but it could still use some trimming.
Operation Varsity Blues focused on the FBI investigation into college admissions that put actress Felicity Huffman in jail. Its director, Chris Smith, previously worked on the Fyre Festival documentary. This isn't quite as compelling, but is still well worth watching.
An Oscar winner for Netflix, this documentary is the first produced by Barack and Michelle Obama's Higher Ground Productions team.
American Factory tells the story of Fuyao, a Chinese company that built a factory in Ohio that inhabits a now-closed General Motors plant. You have to watch this movie.
Hulu also has a great Fyre festival documentary, but I prefer this Netflix one. Unlike many Netflix documentaries, which are stretched and bloated into multipart episodes, this documentary is sharp, direct and solid gold the entire way through.
Do you love sports documentaries? This four-part ESPN series gives fans an all-access pass into the top four college football teams of 2018 as they prepare for the semi-finals and national championship.
Stuck at home with too much time on your hands? Interested in learning more about where your food comes from? These recent and forthcoming documentaries explore agriculture and sustainability, covering a variety of topics from beekeeping to soil regeneration and the farm to table journey. Sit back and enjoy these tales of activists, farmers, scientists, and beekeepers as they explore issues involving the solvency of our current food system and the journey to creating a more sustainable and equitable system for the future.
Chasing the Thunder (1 hour 36 mins) - Chasing the Thunder is a 2018 documentary by director Mark Benjamin about Sea Shepherd's thrilling 110-day pursuit of the rogue fishing vessel, Thunder, wanted by INTERPOL for toothfish poaching in the Southern Ocean. While the crew of the Sam Simon worked tirelessly for weeks in freezing conditions to pull in the illegal nets left behind for evidence, the Bob Barker chased the Thunder through storms and ice floes, across three oceans until it was scuttled by its own captain. Originally appearing in shorter format as part of the Ocean Warriors series on Animal Planet, it can now be watched as an independent documentary on Discovery Plus and Amazon Prime. Watch the trailer here.
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